1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention is an alignment and positioning device for use with stacks of flexible strips of material when constructing a composite tubular assembly.
2. Description of the Related Art
This is an improvement on the device used to manufacture the composite tubular assembly in the invention disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,804,942 and 6,491,779, which are herein incorporated by reference.
Composite tapes, referred to in the industry as tape stacks, are formed from a plurality of thin tape strips. The tape stacks are then helically wound onto a tubular core. During the wrapping of the tape stacks, gaps can occur between adjacent tape stacks. The gaps can reduce the pressure integrity of the tubular core by potentially allowing pressure to extrude the tubular core through the gaps between the adjacent tape stacks.
The tape stacks can also become skewed or slurred such that the cross section of the tape stacks forms a parallelogram shape instead of a desirable rectangular shape. A parallelogram shape reduces the structural strength of the tubular core and can result in the failure of the tubular core during internal pressure loading.
Prior art gathering dies include a comb-like device that gathers the individual tapes together while wrapping the resulting tape stack on the tubular core or on top of an existing layer. The prior art gathering dies do not align the individual tapes and therefore the resulting tape stacks become skewed or slurred as they are being wrapped onto the tubular core or on top of an existing layer. Also, the prior art gathering dies do not provide desirable uniform spacing between the individual tape stacks. The problem can become more pronounced as the diameters of the tubular core becomes greater because additional tape stacks are required to cover the tubular core and to contain pressure within the tubular core.